Tambi TylerUpper School Principal
Atlanta International School (GA)
I often say to those who ask that education chose me.
I’ve worked in education for more than 20 years. I began my career in the same public school system in which I was educated. I worked through the ranks of the school district from teacher to administrator, and I grew to love the structures and complexities of learning organizations more and more with each passing year.
My first role in public schools was as a teacher’s assistant. I had the privilege of working with a powerful teacher who took me under her wing as her protégé and confidant. I later became acquainted with the diversity coordinator in our school district who quickly became a mentor and career guide. She very bluntly asked me, “What will it take for you to become a teacher?” She enabled me to get a degree in education.
After teaching for five years, she came to me once again and said, “You should be a dean of students.” She was very clear in her belief that I should be in administration and that my skills were in leadership beyond the classroom. She was relentless, and she helped me get my master’s degree. I became a dean of students, a school improvement leader, and later moved on to assistant principal.
These roles were about finding and developing talent, skills, strategies, and systems for adults and children. In these roles, I grew as a professional. I anchored myself as a competent and skillful leader. I began to hunger and search for the organizations and structures that I could serve, grow, innovate, and change in. I began to write down my vision for a learning organization. I was led to the independent school community and to seek out a place there. I found one, a principal role, in a school I quickly fell in love with.
Independent school education provided the uninhibited sense of learning that I was thirsty for. I found within the independent school community an environment of innovation and high academic achievement. There’s a commitment among thriving students and strong teachers to nurture intellectual curiosity. Our goal is to light a spark that will continue well beyond high school graduation. I am able to explore interventions designed to make meaningful connections for all students, not just a select majority. In my current environment, we work tirelessly to make each and every student experience one that is effective and cultivates passions. Raising the bar for students is expected, supporting students with struggles is encouraged, character development and activism are explored, and lifelong learning and curiosity are ignited. This solidifies the learning organization that I long to forever be a part of.
What I realize now about my journey is that I wasn’t always sure of where it would lead. Were it not for my
mentor—who, even though she’s retired, is still my mentor today—I don’t know if I would have gone in this direction. She recently told me that she had leadership in mind for me since the day she met me. Education is my calling. I was led to it, and have been in love with it since the day I started. The work I do now has been in my heart all along.
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